‘Heroes Reborn’ Rises In Ratings With No Football; ‘Mom’ Premiere Slips In New Slot

UPDATE 2:45 PM: Major downward adjustment for most of CBS’ series as projected. The Season 3 premiere ofMom (1.5) at 9 PM fell a whopping -.5 from its fast national and is now down -40% from its Season 2 opener behind The Big Bang Theory at 8:30 PM. The Season 4 premiere of Elementary (1.1) fell -.4 and is off by -.1 from last fall’s opener. At 8:30 PM, Life In Pieces‘ (1.9) Thursday premiere fell -.3 to finish -.1 below its last Monday outing. The slip for The Big Bang Theory (3.7) was the smallest, -.1, for a -15% drop vs. its last Monday airing. LIP‘s retention improved slightly, from 48%, to 51%. Elsewhere, ABC’s Scandal (2.2) and Fox’s Bones (1.1) each was adjusted down by a tenth.

PREVIOUS 9:15 AM: CBS launched its post-football Thursday lineup last night, but we will have to wait until midday to find out exactly how it did because of fast national ratings inflations from…football. The CBS stations in both Cleveland and Cincinnati carried the Cleveland Browns-Cincinnati Bengals game, which did very well there, so significant downward adjustments for CBS’ Thursday shows are expected in the finals. I will update with the correct Live+Same Day results when they become available.

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One thing is pretty certain: the Season 3 premiere of Mom (currently at a 2.0 in 18-49) in its new 9 PM slot will be down both from its Season 2 premiere behind Big Bang (2.5) and its season finale (2.0). For now, The Big Bang Theory is at 3.8, down 14% from its last Monday outing (and may slip even further), so the hit comedy did get dinged in its transfer to Thursdays for a second consecutive year. (Big Bang still was the highest-rated program of the night by a wide margin.) Life In Pieces is at 2.3, +0.2 from its last Monday airing, so the freshman will likely finish about even. The season opener of Elementary (1.5) has a chance to finish on par or slightly ahead of last fall’s debut (1.2).

NBC’s male-skewing Heroes: Reborn (1.3) saw a significant boost from not having to face Thursday Night Football on CBS, up 30% from last week to hit a five-week high. The Blacklist (1.4) was down 7% while The Player (0.7) was even.

ABC’s female-driven drama lineup was stable, with little impact from the change in CBS’ Thursday schedule. Grey’s Anatomy (2.3) was down a tenth from the Live+SD result for its most recent original two weeks ago, but the medical soap virtually always gets adjusted up by a tenth in the finals, so it will likely end up even.Scandal (2.3) was flat with last week while How To Get Away With Murder (1.9) ticked up a tenth.